This year, the Day of Remembrance of the Greek Jewish Martyrs and Heroes of the Holocaust will be commemorated with an online tribute and illumination of the White Tower with the uniform of an Auschwitz prisoner and the yellow star that the Jews were forced to wear on their lapels.
The online tribute, organized by the Region of Central Macedonia and the Israelite Community of Thessaloniki (ICTH), includes a video screening of the illumination of the White Tower, on Wednesday, January 27, at 18:00 p.m., as well as a screening of the show "Anna's Lost Innocence Frank" by the IKTH theater group "Entremosotros", on Saturday January 30, at 19:00.
More: THESSALONIKI 2021: ONLINE TRIBUTE & PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE WHITE TOWER FOR THE MEMORIAL DAY OF...
This morning, 5.1.2021, the vaccinations for COVID-19 began in the care centers for the elderly as part of the "Freedom" program, and the guests and staff of the "Saul D. Modiano" Nursing Home were vaccinated in the presence of the president of the National Public Health Organization (EODY ), Panagiotis Arkoumaneas.
The EODY staff was welcomed to the facilities of the Nursing Home by the president of the Israelite Community of Thessaloniki and the Central Israelite Council of Greece, Mr. David Saltiel.
The first guest to be vaccinated is the Holocaust survivor, Ms. Zanna Saatsoglou – Sadikario.
ISRAELI COMMUNITY OF THESSALONIKI
More: ANNOUNCEMENT OF I.K. OF THESSALONIKI FOR VACCINATIONS AT SAUL MODIANO NURSING HOME
The Israeli Community of Thessaloniki has scheduled a daily online lighting of the Hanukkah candles through the zoom online platform and live streaming through the I.K. Thessaloniki on Facebook.
The lighting of the first Hanukkah candle took place on Thursday, December 10, 2020 by the President of the Central Jewish Council of Greece and the Israelite Community of Thessaloniki, Mr. David Saltiel and the Mayor of Thessaloniki, Mr. Konstantinos Zerva, with the online participation of the Most Wise Rabbi, Mr. Israel, as well and a crowd of people.
Mr. Saltiel pointed out that this year's celebration has the peculiarity of being celebrated from afar and wished the future to be bright, stressing that the Maccabees fought for light and hope and this message was sent to us, not to lose hope because one is enough small ray of light to dispel even the thickest darkness. Afterwards, Mr. Saltiel welcomed the Mayor of Thessaloniki, Mr. Zervas, who for the second consecutive year is participating in the lighting of the Hanukkah candles.
Mr. Zervas emphasized that it is a joy and a privilege for him to participate in this celebration and wished everyone a happy Hanukkah stating that the miracle of light came to dispel the darkness and emphasized the special symbolism of this year, where all of us must to pray to bring back all that we love and soon we can all be together, in physical presence, to celebrate all the holidays.
"The history of the Jews of Thessaloniki fills us with admiration and at the same time stimulates our conscience and calls us to be alert", said the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, immediately after her visit to the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki on 27.10.2020.
"Excitement, respect, sadness, maybe even some shame: with these feelings I followed the traces of the more than two thousand years of Jewish presence in Thessaloniki. With these feelings I toured the history of a community that enriched the city with culture, creativity, business demon, its vitality, but it was severely tested in the twentieth century, culminating in its almost complete annihilation in the Nazi camps," emphasized the President of the Republic.
"As I wandered through the halls of the Museum, the lyrics of Zoe Karellis, the great Thessalonian poet, kept coming back to my mind: "Of Israel the tribe with silent endurance/ rigid secret power, omnipresence/ there is strong and unyielding". The history of the Jews of Thessaloniki, which unfolds so excitingly in the halls of the Museum, fills us with admiration, and at the same time stimulates our conscience and calls us to be alert," he added.
More: PtD VISIT TO THE JEWISH MUSEUM OF THESSALONIKI & STATEMENTS BY THE PRESIDENT OF KISE
by Vangelis Stergiopoulos
For more than twenty centuries, Thessaloniki was a refuge for the persecuted Jews of Europe, resulting in the creation of a large Jewish community there, one of the most important in the world
It is assumed that the first Jews settled in Thessaloniki around 140 BC, coming from Alexandria, Egypt.
The members of the ancient Jewish community of Thessaloniki, the so-called Romaniotes, had adopted the Greek language while retaining several elements of Hebrew or Aramaic origin, as well as the Hebrew script.
During the Roman Times, the Jews of Thessaloniki enjoyed a regime of autonomy, which some Byzantine emperors attempted to overturn to a certain extent, imposing special taxation or even restrictive measures on the practice of Jewish worship.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, Ashkenazim Jews from Hungary and Germany, as well as Jews from Provence, Italy and Sicily, settled in Thessaloniki.
More: MEMORIALS AND MEMORIALS OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF THESSALONIKI